Four solar and wind farms to be developed in Uganda

THE government of Uganda has announced plans to build four solar and wind farms in two regions in Uganda. This follows a signed agreement with Amea Power, an independent power producer (IPP) based in the United Arab Emirates for the development.

According to the agreement, a 10MW solar photovoltaic power plant and a 10 MW wind farm will be located in the West Nile region of northwestern Uganda. Implementation of this project will begin before January 2021.

Amea also plans to build the largest facility in the Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda. Hussain bin Jassim Al-Nowais, head of Amea Power said that the company will construct a wind farm with a capacity of 120 MW. The solar power plant will be capable of supplying 80 MWp to the Ugandan electricity grid. Upon completion, the new projects will increase installed capacity on the African continent.

State of energy in Uganda

Uganda is richly endowed with abundant energy resources, which are fairly distributed throughout the country. These include hydropower, biomass, solar, geothermal, peat and fossil fuels.

The energy resource potential of the country includes an estimated 2,000 MW of hydropower, 450 MW of geothermal, 1,650 MW of biomass cogeneration, 460 million tons of biomass standing stock with a sustainable annual yield of 50 million tons, an average of 5.1 kWh/m2 of solar energy, and about 250 Million tons of peat (800 MW). The overall renewable energy power generation potential is estimated to be 5,300 MW.

Existing solar data clearly indicate that the solar energy resource in Uganda is high throughout the year with a variation (max month/min month) of only about maximum 20 percent (from 4.5 to 5.5 W/m2), which is due to the location near the equator. The insolation is highest in the dryer area in the north-east and very low in the mountains in the east and south-west.

Wind measurements, on the other hand, have shown an average wind speed of 3.7m/s indicating that the wind energy resource in Uganda is insufficient for large-scale electricity generation.